Copper Alloy (80% Cu, 15% Zn, 5% Tn)

Colors

About Brass

Brass is a material commonly used in jewelry, accessories and home decor. It is a copper alloy containing 15% zinc, 5% tin and 80% copper and is capable of showcasing intricate details and offers a professional, finished look and feel. Brass will tarnish over time, but can be polished back to achieve a like-new surface.

Common Applications

Jewelry, Fashion Accessories, Home Decor, Prototypes, Miniatures

Handling and Care

Like all brass, our Polished and Natural offerings will tarnish over time and may need to be polished or cleaned.

Frequently Asked Questions

What finishes are available?

Will this turn my skin green?

Brass can react with your skin leaving a non-harmful greenish tinge with wear over time. To prevent this, you may consider coating the inner diameter of rings with clear nail polish.

How is this material made?

Brass models are fabricated using lost wax casting. First, the model is printed in wax using a specialized high-resolution 3D Printer. It is then put in a container where liquid plaster is poured in around it. Once the plaster sets, the wax is melted out in a furnace, and the remaining plaster becomes the mold.

Molten brass is poured into this mold and set to harden. The plaster is broken away, revealing your new product. Natural Brass is briefly tumbled. Polished Brass is carefully cleaned and hand polished. Please be aware that polishing can wear down or fill in very fine details and edges.

Why is there a limitation of 6 interlocking parts per file?

For interlocking parts, we connect each wax part with a sprue and then cut and polish the sprue away after casting. Due to the intensive labor involved in every part we connect, we limit the number of parts allowed.

Applications

Technology

BOUNDING BOX

Maximum

89 ×89 × 100 mm
75 × 75 × 40 mm (Interlocking Parts)

Minimum

2.5 × 2.4 × 0.6 mm

Your model should be the minimum and maximum bounding box sizes. The maximum bounding box represents the largest model that our printers can produce. The minimum bounding box size is the smallest dimension in which we can print in this material.

WALL THICKNESS

Min Supported Wall Thickness

0.6 mm (Natural)
0.8 mm (Polished)

Min Unsupported Wall Thickness

0.6 mm (Natural)
0.8 mm (Polished)

A supported wall is connected on two or more sides. An unsupported wall is one connected to other walls on less than two sides. Walls in your model should be thicker than or equal to the minimum measurements suggested to ensure your model makes it through printing and cleaning. Walls that are too thin are prone to warping in the printing processing, or may break when we remove it from the printer and clean it.

Walls and wires close to or slightly above the guidelines may still be rejected based on the geometry. For example, extra long wires or walls protruding from an object may be damaged during cleaning. Our production team will communicate with you if the design is too weak with tips on how to strengthen it.

WIRES

Min Supported Wires

0.8 mm
1.5 mm (For Interlocking Parts)

Min Unsupported Wires

1.0 mm
1.5 mm (For Interlocking Parts)

A geometry considered a wire when its thinner in both unconnected directions than its length. Wires that are under our suggested minimums are prone to breaking in the cleaning process.

ESCAPE HOLES

To create brass products, a plaster mold is poured around a wax print of your product, and then brass is cast into the plaster mold. For products with hollow areas, escape holes are essential for two parts of this process. First, the liquid plaster must be able to enter the hole to fill in the hollow area. Then, once the metal is cast, the escape hole must be large enough to allow removal of the hardened plaster from the hollow area. If escape holes are too small, the hollow area may be completely filled in with metal or plaster. A single escape hole at the end of a cavity will not allow material in the corners near the escape hole to fully escape. So we recommend multiple escape holes at both ends of the cavity.

A single escape hole at the end of a cavity will not allow material in the corners near the escape hole to fully escape. So we recommend multiple escape holes at both ends of the cavity.

CLEARANCE

0.3 mm
1.0 mm (For Interlocking Parts)

Clearance is the space between an two parts, e.g. space between gears or a ball and socket joint.

INTERLOCKING AND ENCLOSED PARTS ?

Yes, up to 6.

MULTIPLE PARTS ?

Up to 2. Two features that interlock count as 1 part.

ACCURACY

Your model may shrink about 0.25 mm plus 2.5% after casting and finishing.

For rings the inner diameter is accurate within +/- 0.1 to 0.15mm. On average, the model shrinks about 2.5% after casting and finishing. We do our best to polish the internal diameter to match your model file.

DESIGN TIPS

Some detail is lost during polishing

Polishing gives this material a beautiful finish, but can have an impact on fine details. During the polishing step, fine or sharp-edged details may be polished down or even broken off. Keep this in mind when you're designing fine details.

Internal detail can not be polished

We can only polish well-reachable surfaces, so tight internal spaces may remain unpolished.

This material will leave green stains on the skin after long term wear

The copper in the brass material will react with chemicals on the skin and create green stains. These are harmless, but often undesired. This material is therefore less suited for rings.

Keep embossed and engraved details shallow

Engraved details must not be too deep, and embossed details must not be too tall. The width of your detail must be the same or greater than how far it juts out from the surface (or sinks in for engraving). Engraved details that are too deep will cause issues when casting. Embossed details that are too tall are more likely to chip and break during production (unless the detail meets the minimum wall requirements).

Stone holding prongs should be short

Prongs for holding stones cannot be too long without anything connecting them. This connecting beam is to prevent the wax from breaking away. Also, with thin and long prongs, the product will not to be able to hold big stones. Make sure your stone will sit snug and tight.